What: Learn the business growth stages and the key managerial areas to focus on during each one, including during the difficult transitions.
Why: You will understand where your company is, what you need to focus on, and what to think through for the next stage ahead.
Our recommendation:
A company’s growth journey can be compared to that of a person’s: after the womb, there is infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Out of the 1 in 10 startups that survives its first 3 years, a few become “gazelles” (as former MIT professor David Birch called fast-growth companies on the verge of breaking out) but all that survive eventually find themselves in that awkward life stage called adolescence.
It is for this adolescence stage of business, which Tatum calls “No Man’s Land,” that we cannot recommend his book highly enough. This is a stage where companies severely struggle, as they are now “too big to be small, but too small to be big.” Drawing on hundreds of case studies, Tatum articulates the unique challenges of 4 (or actually 5) distinct managerial areas along with potential solutions that every company in “No Man’s Land” will benefit from.
From Amazon:
“If you’re an entrepreneur, this book will help you make your company all it can be and all you want it to be.”
Purchase from Amazon here.
If we at LIFT SME can lead you and your team through a “No Man’s Land” strategy consultation during which we assess your company’s current state and together distill the best path out of this difficult phase, please contact us today.
